Why Big Game Publishers Make Sucky Apps (Hint: It’s You)

Image: Capcom

The iOS version of the classic fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom 2, released on April 25, is riding high in the App Store sales charts. And it’s an utter mess of a game.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2, which pits Street Fighter characters like Ryu against Marvel’s superheroes, has low-resolution graphics and an inconsistent framerate. But its biggest problem is the controls: It uses an on-screen virtual joystick and buttons to replicate the arcade cabinet setup of the original. It has none of the precision fighting action that made the original great. You’re reduced to just smearing your thumbs around the display hoping for something good to happen.

Ryan Rigney

But players will buy this lazy shovelware because they know the name of the game. And as long as crap keeps selling, publishers have no incentive to change their behavior.

Why would a big publisher like Capcom take the risk on creating an original iPhone game designed for the strengths of the touch screen when fans just eat up substandard ports of games with notable names? Why not just rake in the profits from fans too drunk on nostalgia to resist? Publishers will never resist the urge to rake in easy sales from emulated versions of previously developed games, despite the fact that customers buying these games are, in most cases, getting a sub-par experience.

These companies aren’t unskilled, or stupid or bad at mobile game development. They simply lack restraint, and the result is a market that’s flooded with amateurish games with awful controls from studios that should know better.

“Everyone was trying to figure out a way to shoehorn games they’d already made onto the platform. Tetris wasn’t built around a touch screen. If we hadn’t had those original games, and we’d only had touch screens, you’d never see a game like that. It would never have come up naturally, because it’s not good.”

Imagine a world in which the iOS version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 didn’t have nostalgia going for it. Would anyone be satisfied with it?

That game’s publisher, Capcom, is among the worst offenders. Eighteen of Capcom’s 20 iOS titles are ports of existing games. Its only two original games aren’t very good. Of the 18 ports, 16 rely heavily on on-screen, virtual controls.

Capcom’s three most popular paid apps are currently Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter IV Volt. Somehow, the games least amenable to iOS’s input methods sell the most. Other big sellers are Resident Evil 4 and Mega Man X, also ports of traditional button-based games that use on-screen controls.

Not only are these lame games more popular than games designed specifically around iOS, they can be sold at premium prices of around $5 each. If more people will buy a $5 piece of broken shovelware than a $1 piece of original content, why bother making good games?

Capcom is not alone. In fact, it’s in great company among the world’s biggest game publishers. Call of Duty and World of Warcraft maker Activision Blizzard can’t figure out what to do with the App Store. Ten of its 12 games are half-baked, virtual-controls bug-fests based on existing franchises. Besides the original release Pix Maze and the new Skylanders Cloud Patrol, everything else the company has put on iOS looks like something for the Nokia N-Gage.

Ubisoft knows the score, too. Its top-selling paid app is Assassin’s Creed II Discovery, a mediocre endless runner with virtual buttons that hasn’t been updated for two years and sells for $6.

Square Enix made an effort, early in the iPhone’s life, at releasing original games. Remember Song Summoner, Hills and Rivers Remain, Vanguard Storm, Sliding Heroes and Crystal Defenders? You don’t, of course, because no one bought them. The company has since wised up and started releasing high-priced ports of aging role-playing games to iOS, from Secret of Mana ($9) to Chrono Trigger ($10).

With 107 released apps on the App Store, Electronic Arts takes iOS more seriously than most of its competitors. But for every carefully constructed title like Mirror’s Edge, there’s an Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Battlefield 3: Aftershock was so hated that the company actually pulled it from the App Store.

We get the games we deserve: If you want a better iOS lineup, the only way is to stop impulse-buying games based on nostalgia and start rewarding better games. Otherwise, you’re teaching publishers the wrong lesson.